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This confirms a couple of things. First, the economy here is not as weak as some people say. We are behind the national recovery, but are participating in it.

Second, we are reaping the fruits of our deliberate social policy to make housing expensive in King County. The policy is called “growth management,” and all right-thinking progressives around here are in favor of it.

But it does make houses more and more expensive, as it is intended to do. It adds to the net worth of people like me, who own, and forces people who don’t own to spend more of their lives in apartments.